Hellen Frankenthaler Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly by Helen Frankenthaler ©2000 Collection National Gallery of Australia

 

Frankenthaler pours mountains and sea
salt-stain wave of unbridled experimentation
pathfinder in the flow of a quadrillion connections

unfathomable neural networks alight
electrochemical cognate comprehension
of yet unknowable heights

entering elaborative flow, fluid intelligence
a sublime interiority of creativity
color fields of liminal poetics

realms she’s unable to disparage
reaching an optimal state
of courage, merging awareness

with action in rapturous parallel processes
lyric soak stain, abstract expressionist
dialogue of landscape and emotion

art birthed through her inventive interplay
breakthrough paradox: immediacy of motion
mimicking the spontaneity of (her) nature

intimate picture of a singular day
impossibly operatic and poignant
of inked butterfly promises never fulfilled